- After a suspected delta case occurred in the community, New Zealand has re-entered the lockdown.
- A 58-year-old man tested positive for Covid-19, but there is no direct evidence that he had traveled abroad.
- Prime Minister Jacinda Arden said that New Zealand needs to act “early” to stop the spread of the delta virus.
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After a 58-year-old man tested positive for Covid-19, New Zealand re-entered a strict national lockdown, but there was no direct evidence that he had traveled abroad.
Official Suppose the infection is caused by This A highly contagious variant of the Delta coronavirus.
National statistics show Since February, all cases in New Zealand have been detected at its borders rather than in the community. Since the beginning of the pandemic, this country of nearly 5 million people has recorded only 26 Covid-19-related deaths and supports strict lockdowns.
Prime Minister Jacinda Arden Said in the Tuesday briefing Since late June, all cases except for the Covid-19 infection in New Zealand have caused Delta, which is a “game changer”.
“This means we need to work again and stop the spread early. We have seen what happens if we can’t do it elsewhere. We only have one chance,” she said.
Arden stated that the basis for making this decision is “better to start from a high starting point and then lower” the blockade level.
“We have seen the terrible consequences of taking actions in other countries for too long,” she said.
Arden said that from midnight on Tuesday, New Zealanders can only go out to exercise, go to the supermarket to shop, go to the pharmacy and other basic medical services, and get tested. They must wear masks.
This is New Zealand’s second “Level 4” blockade, and it is also the most stringent level in the country.
Arden said that with the exception of Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand where the man lives, and the Coromandel, where the man went on weekends, the epidemic in most parts of the country will continue for three days.
Arden also paused The country launches a vaccine, It has fallen behind most other countries by 48 hours, and measures have been taken to continue it safely.
New Zealand has fully vaccinated 18.6% of the population, According to Johns Hopkins University. The world average is 23.6%.
Dr. Ashley Broomfield, Chief Executive of the Ministry of Health, Said in the briefing The unvaccinated man developed symptoms during a weekend trip to the Coromandel on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island on Saturday and was tested by a family doctor in Auckland on Monday.
Broomfield said he is now in self-isolation. The man’s wife was vaccinated and tested negative.
Health officials said the man had no obvious travel history and had no contact with anyone who had traveled. They tried to determine how he was infected, they said.
The country entered Level 4 lockdown for the first time on March 26, 2020, when fewer than 300 cases were recorded and there were no deaths. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country has recorded 2,927 Covid-19 cases and 26 deaths. According to Johns Hopkins University.
As of Monday, there are currently 43 New Zealanders infected with Covid-19, an average of 1.07 newly confirmed Covid-19 cases per million people per day. According to the latest statistics from Oxford University’s “Our World Data”In comparison, on the same day, the United States saw an average of 394,89 new confirmed cases per million every day, and 418,85 new cases per million in the United Kingdom.
